The present invention relates generally to a method and a system of processing the purchase of products, goods and/or services, more particularly, to a method and system for processing the purchase by a buyer of products from one or more sellers of products internationally in an e-Commerce business environment.
As the modern world has learned, when the barriers to trade have been reduced or eliminate, whether they be borders or custom, the purchase and sale of products and services has increased globally. Efficiency in production and the allocation of resources to lower cost producers in many former third world countries has led to an expansion and globalization of trade and markets. This has resulted in increased trade for countries such as the People""s Republic of China that has become the dominant exporter of products to the United States of America. The introduction and advancement of information technology, particularly so-called xe2x80x9con-linexe2x80x9d interactions between computer users has further promoted an expansion from local markets to national market, regional markets and international markets.
In the past several years there has been an explosive growth in the use of globally-linked network of computers known as the Internet, and in particular of the World Wide Web (WWW), which is a facility provided on top of the Internet. The WWW, the universe of Internet-accessible information, comprises many pages or files of information, distributed across many different server computer systems. The availability of this interconnectivity across distances has opened markets previously deemed too remote for effective trading. Further, access to the WWW has empowered real-time access to buyers seeking seller of products and sellers seeking buyers for products which was beyond imagination a mere generation ago. Such empowerment has resulted in the rapid development of commerce on the Internet, with direct marketing and sales occurring on-line.
In the United States of America, a buyer may browse the Internet to determine available products and then purchase those products. In this era of credit card fraud and theft, in the otherwise non-secure transmission environment of the Internet, a buyer can purchase the products on-line through an encrypted credit card transaction, the transfer of credit card information being made under a security protocol, for instance, a Security Socket Layer Protocol (SSL), very commonly a 128 bit protocol, that provides a high degree of security. Such encryption is provided to a browsing potential buyer by means of the merchant server having obtained a digital certificate from a qualified Certificate of Authority (CA). The encryption security provides encryption of credit card information for the buyer at the buyer""s terminal before it is transmitted over the Internet to the merchant server that then subjects the information to processing through the established channels maintained by financial institutions for completing the credit transaction between the merchant server""s bank (acquiring bank) and the bank represented by the buyer""s credit card (buyer bank). Further, confirmation or response of information to the buyer can likewise be forwarded to the buyer from the merchant server by similarly secure encryption techniques. Within most advanced e-Commerce nations where credit cards are used to purchase products over the Internet, the merchant servers function with adequately secure encryption and decryption techniques for the exchange of credit card information.
However, circumstances exist that a buyer in one nation state will not execute a purchase of products from a merchant server located either in the same nation state or in a second nation state because adequately secure encryption and decryption techniques for the exchange of credit card information among the buyer, merchant server, acquiring bank and buyer""s bank cannot be achieved. The buyer will very likely not purchase products from a merchant server, without available adequate or compatible encryption and decryption techniques to aid in the transmission of credit card information. (It is noted that a policy of a nation state, for instance, the United States of America with respect to restrictions in the export of encryption technology systems, or, for instance, another nation state with respect to barriers to the importation and/or the lack of adequate encryption technology systems or compatible encryption technology systems arising from high infrastructure capital investment concerns or regulations, pose an obstacle to safe e-Commerce credit card information online transactions.) In addition to the hindrance posed by the credit card security issue for the realization of transnational e-Commerce, the existence of foreign exchange rate fluctuations presents a major obstacle to achieving the smooth functioning of e-Commerce across borders.
A method and system are disclosed which permits a buyer requiring adequately secure encryption and decryption techniques for purchasing products from a merchant server that does not provide such techniques.
An object of the invention is to provide a method and system which overcomes the lack of adequately secure encryption and decryption in a merchant server to which a buyer wishes to provide credit card information for the purchase of products posted on such merchant server.
Another object of the invention is to promote the availability of product to buyers through expanding the method and system by which the buyers"" credit card information can be subjected to adequately secure encryption and decryption in the Internet environment.
A further object of the invention is to promote an on-line purchase from a merchant that would not otherwise achieve sales due to incompatible credit card information encryption systems between the acquiring bank and the buyer""s bank.
An additional object of the invention is enhanced inventory control and production for merchants and merchant manufacturers through the provision of a real-time purchasing/sales environment via the mechanism of a readily refreshed cache on a web server.
A further additional object of the invention is to provide a method of transacting real-time sales internationally that promotes certainty of business costs through the limiting of the impact of currency fluctuations.
Additionally, an object of the invention is the enabling of a bidding system for products in a merchant server, the purchaser submitting needs requirements in solicitation of bids from merchants providing products.
Another object of the invention, by locating the Web, DB server close to the buyers with a high-speed local network, is to resolve the problem of bandwidth bottleneck occurring in cross-border internet transmission, particularly high-speed transmission for multimedia files that may not pass current international WWW network connections quickly and smoothly.